Fromthe Editors. We are publishing excerpts from a letter written by a
comrade who is a member of one of our Party committees. This comrade is one of
the few that not only write to the Central Organ, but speak of their
understanding of tactics and of the way they apply this
tactics. Without such talks, not intended specially for publication, it is
impossible to work out uniform Party tactics in common. Without such an exchange
of opinions with those engaged in practical work, the editorial board of a paper
brought out abroad will never be the real mouthpiece of the whole Party. That is
why we are publishing an opinion expressed by a comrade who is familiar with a
small part of the most recent literature, because we wish to encourage the
largest possible number of practical workers to talk to us and exchange opinions
on all Party problems.

Notes

[1]“Talks with Our Readers” is the
editor’s introduction to a letter, published by Proletary
in excerpts, from the Bolshevik S. Gusev, who in the second half of
1905 was the secretary of the Odessa Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. In his letter
Gusev expressed his opinion of the Bolsheviks’ tactics in the 1905 Revolution,
reported on the explanatory work among the masses that was being conducted on
these questions, and criticised the decisions of the Geneva Conference of the
Mensheviks. Replying to Gusev on September 7 (20), 1905, Lenin wrote that he was
instituting contacts between the Central Organ and practical workers, and that
the editorial board intended publishing his letter in part. “On the whole
we are in agreement and hold the same opinions (your ideas coincide with mine in
Two Tactics),” Lenin wrote (Collected Works, Vol. 34, “A
Letter to S. I. Gusev”).